Document Category

Communications

Date

February 18, 1889

State or Territory

Montana

Committee or Office

N/A

Series

Accompanying Papers, 1865–1903

Congress

50th (1887–1889)

Member(s)

Joseph Kemp Toole

Description

The Montana territorial legislature sent this telegram to Montana Delegate Joseph K. Toole regarding the territory’s impending statehood: “The people of Montana rejoice in the belief that our statehood and the statehood of our sister territories is so near at hand.” The telegram is dated February 18, 1889, just a few days before the legislation establishing Montana as a state passed Congress on February 22, 1889. President Benjamin Harrison admitted Montana into the Union by Presidential Proclamation on November 8, 1889. Toole left the House of Representatives to pursue his gubernatorial candidacy, and began serving as Montana’s first governor in November 1889.